by Rowan Casey
“What do you mean should it fall?” the man who introduced himself as Bishop asked. “I thought you said it was definitely going to.”
“There’s a chance, a slim one, but a chance nonetheless, that we might be able to stop it. Might even manage to reinforce it at the same time. But it’s not going to be easy.”
“We’re listening,” Seton said.
Grimm nodded, plainly encouraged by the fact that they hadn’t run screaming out of the room at the first sign of the horned demon.
“It’s complicated, so I think it’s best if I have the individual responsible for the idea explain it all to you.”
A door at the back of the room opened at that moment and a blonde woman dressed in a smart-looking suit stepped into view. She crossed to stand at Grimm’s side, looked out over the assembled group, and smiled in welcome.
To Jessie, the smile seemed somewhat predatory, but then again she recognized the woman from her research earlier as Marilyn LeVay, the former actress and socialite who had been seen from time to time in Grimm’s company over the years. Jessie wondered what their real relationship might be. Lovers? Siblings? She didn’t know.
“This is my...” Grim hesitated, as if searching for the right word, before deciding on, “…colleague, Marilyn Levay. She is a powerful sorcerer in her own right and was the first person I consulted when I realized the Veil was collapsing in on itself. I’ll let her explain.”
Levay looked them over one at a time. Judging them perhaps, weighing their worthiness for the job. She hadn’t even started speaking and already Jessie didn’t like her.
Relax, she told herself. Listen to what she has to say.
LeVay got right to it.
“Think of the Veil as a kind of gateway, a door if you will. And like any good door, it has a key that can be used to secure it. This key is known as the Caeg Dimmre.”
“The Key of Wickedness,” Jessie heard Seton whisper beside her.
It did not go unnoticed by LaVey.
“Quite right, Mr. Seton. Caeg Dimmre. Old English for the Key of Wickedness. Named for the wicked things that it kept locked away behind the barrier.
“Those who created the Veil, the original Veil Knights if you will, were concerned that the Caeg Dimmre might fall into the hands of their enemies where it could be used to grant them access to our world once more. So, with the help of the Merlin’s magic, they broke the key into nine pieces, each one representing one of the Nine Races imprisoned behind the Veil, and scattered them to the four corners of the earth. Each piece was fashioned to look like an ordinary object.”
She rattled them off one at a time. “The hilt of a sword. The blade of a knife. A chest. A polished stone. A drinking horn. A cauldron. A leash. A motorcycle. A jacket. All of them designed to blend into the scenery, so that even their owners might not know what it is that they possessed.”
“If the pieces of the Caeg Dimmre were to be assembled again, Grimm and I could use our powers to activate the magic inherent in the Key. We could then use that power to repair the Veil, restoring it to its original strength and protecting our world from the Nine Races for another thousand years or more.”
The man named Bryn spoke up for the first time. “So what’s the problem? Gather the pieces from wherever you’ve hidden them and put things to right again.”
Grimm frowned. “If only it were that simple. As I explained earlier, something isn’t right this time around. Whenever the Knights have been needed in the past, the avatars inside them “awoke,” for lack of a better word, as soon as they came into my or my predecessor’s presence. The knowledge of pertaining to each piece of the Caeg Dimmre was usually passed on in the same fashion.”
“But something went wrong,” Jessie breathed.
Grimm glanced at her and nodded. “Yes, something went wrong. With one exception, none of you awoke to your true nature when encountering me for the first time. It was as if your connection to the avatars that came before you have been severed in some strange fashion and the power and memories that should be yours by birthright are no longer accessible to you.”
He shook his head, as if confounded by the whole dilemma, and then went on. “Which brings us to where we are now. We need to recover the pieces of Caeg Dimmre and bring them together if we are to have any hope of shoring up the Veil.”
“How are we supposed to do that? They could be anywhere!” Hannah exclaimed and Jessie found herself nodding in agreement.
Grimm held up his hands in a hang-on-a-second kind of gesture.
“When I first understood the problem facing us, I set a team of researchers to work on locating the objects and verifying, as much as possible, that they are indeed the pieces of the Key. They will still need to be recovered, which, in some instances, will be particularly challenging, but at least we know where they are. It will be up to you to recover them.
“Rest assured,” Grimm said, catching their gazes one at a time, “that we are not without resources. This is an ancient ritual that can be adapted for our purposes, that can be used to allow you to activate the avatar hidden deep within you, to allow you to use the powers granted to you as one of the Veil Knights. With your agreement, we can use that ritual to prepare you for what lies ahead.”
“And if we don’t agree?” Hannah’s friend, Daniel, asked.
Grimm shrugged.
“If you don’t agree, and the Veil falls, life on Earth will resemble one of those post-apocalyptic movies that are so popular right now, except a thousand times worse. Is that really what you want to leave as your legacy?”
The room was silent for a long moment.
“Fuck it, I’m in,” a voice said.
The others turned to stare at her and Jessie realized, belatedly, that she’d been the one to speak.
The story of the Veil Knights continues in
Hound of Night
Available Nov. 29, 2016
About the Author
Rowan Casey is the pseudonym for twelve New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestselling writers who have come together to create the Veil Knights shared-world experience.
With more than ten million copies of their books in print around the world, they include Lilith Saintcrow, CJ Lyons, Joseph Nassise, Steven Savile, Annie Bellet, Jon F. Merz, Pippa DaCosta, Robert Greenberger, William Meikle, Steve Lockley, Hank Schwaeble, and Nathan Meyer.
For more information, visit
authorrowancasey
www.rowancasey.com
[email protected]
Copyright Information
The Circle Gathers
Copyright 2016 by Rowan Casey
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.